Hacking Threat Menaces Real Estate Firms

(Boonton, NJ, February 23, 2017) — Foreign hackers are targeting home buyers in a
down-payment scam that can exact a significant toll.

And real estate firms, with their often-porous
cybersecurity practices, enable the scam.

Here’s how it works: A hacker breaks into the email of
a real estate brokerage or a title company, then
patiently watches the back and forth with a buyer until
the moment the buyer is about to make a down payment.

Then the scammer sends a legit-looking email with
instructions for wiring the down payment to the seller,
perhaps explaining that there has been a last-minute
change.

The logos and email signature seem similar to those the
buyer has grown accustomed to seeing, except the bank
account number is for an offshore institution and the
phone number is tweaked by a few digits.

The scam has become common enough that the Federal
Trade Commission and the National Association of
Realtors warned consumers and agents about the
threat.